Moonpig Technology Podcast · Moonpig Tech Podcast

Episode 36: Ditch the Meeting? Rethinking Communication with Async at Moonpig

·36 min·3 clips

We default to meetings because they're easy, not because they're right.

Leon opens with a friendly check-in and introduces Ash Grennan as the guest. Ash explains that he is a senior engineer at Moonpig, working across customer auth and orders functions. The conversation soon turns to why communication style matters inside engineering teams. Ash describes mentoring an associate who found technical meetings difficult. At first, it seemed like a gap in experience or knowledge. Looking closer, he realized the barrier was language, not ability. That pushed him to think more seriously about how meetings can be more inclusive. The episode uses that example to open up a wider discussion about asynchronous work. The point is not to replace meetings entirely. It is to give people time to research and think on their own schedule before coming together. That gives people a better chance to contribute well and avoids forcing important decisions into a single live conversation. The hosts and Ash connect this to a familiar workplace problem. Some meetings run long, drift, and still leave everyone unclear on the next step. A structured async phase can cut down that waste. It lets people do the hard thinking when they are least distracted. The episode then moves into the value of having a clear meeting purpose. Ash mentions the idea of labeling a meeting plainly with what it is about. The point is simple: if there is no real agenda, the meeting probably has no direction. The conversation keeps coming back to the same idea. Structure helps people do their best work, because they can arrive having already done some of the thinking. Rather than asking everyone to solve everything in the room, the show argues for a mix of written preparation and focused live discussion. Near the end, the hosts point to a book that offers practical advice on presenting ideas in writing. That closes the loop on the episode’s main theme. Good communication is not just about talking more. It is about choosing the right mode, giving people room to think, and making meetings earn their place.

As heard by us

A grounded case for async that treats better meetings as an inclusion problem.

This episode makes a plain case for asynchronous communication and keeps it grounded in real team life. It starts with an inclusion problem inside an engineering group, then works outward into timing, structure, and the simple benefit of letting people think before they answer.

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Why you'd press play

Rethink meetings before they swallow the afternoon.

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